How to begin. Again.

Posted on 21/04/2016

#HappyBirthdayYourMajesty and myself!

Here I am, beginning again. This day marks my 26th successful ride around the sun (and the 10th year I am aware that the Queen of England is born on the same day as I am, only 64 years earlier). For this birthday I am giving myself the gift of committing to my blog again, which is very exciting and scary at the same time.

“Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.” – Horace

Sometimes when we start a project, at the beginning we are really into it and dedicate as much time as possible to it. After weeks and months it just happens sometimes that we fall off the wagon. The magic from the beginning has faded. Sparkles have turned into dust. New has become known. Interesting has become routine. This can be followed by doubt, self-dread and frustration. “Is this the right thing? Should I be really doing this?” This happened to my blog and me. What started out as a blog to follow a university lecture and to share what I learned, turned into something I really enjoyed doing. Then my thesis had to happen and everything was jumbled up in my life anyway. When I graduated and adopted a more life-affirming schedule again, I also decided to start blogging again. I wanted to take a more personal turn for the future. But then I didn’t. So, why not?

I felt like I didn’t have or know enough. I needed to do more yoga, read more books, be more a better-person. But there is no end to that. That’s not a valid reason. It dawned on me that it was way easier to fill a blog with research summaries and my opinion about them than with personal stuff. You expose yourself, you become a target for criticism. I got scared and I thought: “As soon as I have my stuff together, as soon as I have figured out what I wanna do with this life, then I will plunge into my blog.”

That perfect moment

Only, this will never happen. Don’t wait! Is there a story inside you that wants to come alive on paper? Write it! Is there a painting in your inner vision that wants to be expressed on canvas? Paint it! You want to have a blog to document and share your journey? Start today, start where you are. If you don’t start, it can’t grow.

You’ll never have “it” all together, there will always be broken pieces somewhere in your life. There will always be work. Just as there will also be joy, fun and love. It’s almost inevitable. Also – you can never figure it all out anyway – so, relax. The yoga practice is like life itself a journey where you stumble and fall, make mistakes and get back up, try again and fail better. The key is to never stop starting again. The long-term rewards for showing up again, showing endurance and determination are far sweeter than the short-time avoiding of failure by acting out of fear.

You, my fellow readers, and I are in the lucky place to choose where our focus shall be in this life. Trust yourself, you’ve come this far already.

How to begin (anything really) (again)

Prioritize – What makes your heart sing? What gives you great joy? What has been on your mind for months again and again?

Start somewhere and start today – If want to embark on a new project just do it! Don’t wait for the perfect circumstances. Think about a name, a colour whatever resonates with you. Just do something.

Set a date in your calender to work daily/weekly/monthly on your project.

If you fall off the wagon, now, how do you begin again? You get back up. Every single time again. Start fresh. A simple step, but not an easy one. I challenge you to take a leap of faith with me, as I am relaunching my blog today: Do something that scares you but that you’ve wanted to for a long time. After all, there’s nothing like a palpitation and the rush of excitement before a high jump. In this case my jump is ‘publish’.

Thank you for having a longer attention span than 80% of the people by reading this. Except if you scrolled right forward to this. Then scroll back up and read please. Thank you.

“Remember tonight… for it is the beginning of always.” – Dante Alighieri

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A graduate in both Celtic and Scandinavian studies having a huge interest in eastern practices like yoga and meditation. Making music with her harp and flutes, writing stories and reading books on almost everything from anatomy to fantasy novels are things she loves as well. She's trying her best every day to live a conscious, compassionate and colourful life.

About Me

vera_agnes

I'm a a lover of life and a humble navigator of this whirlwind-experience we call living based in Vienna, Austria. I believe in changing the world into a better place with small steps everyday by practicing kindness and compassion. On this blog I'm sharing bits and pieces of my yoga, my reading and my life, which I make by teaching yoga and selling meditation cushions.